BY LIFE<\/b><\/p>\n
Sentinel Freelance Writer<\/b><\/p>\n
U. S. District Judge James Moody<\/b> sentenced 27-year-old Rashia Wilson<\/b> to 21 years in federal prison on July 16, 2013. A quick Google <\/b>search shows there has been no shortage of news coverage about Rashia\u2019s <\/b>tax fraud case, since she was arrested in September 2012. Despite all of the media attention, Rashia <\/b>said, \u201cI\u2019ve never told my side of the story, until now. A bunch of stuff about my case ain\u2019t right; and I need people to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rashia <\/b>is adamant that many things that have headlines across mainstream media about her, like the accusation she acquired $3m-$20M; the picture of her wearing a blonde wig and holding stacks of money; the suggestion that she called herself the \u201c1st<\/sup> Lady Of Tax Fraud\u201d <\/b>and taunted law enforcement in Facebook posts; her daughter\u2019s supposed $30K birthday party; her possession of a $90K car; and other luxury things, are misrepresentations of the truth, unfounded facts or flat out lies.<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>does not deny getting caught up in the tax fraud hustle, but says she never saw anywhere near three million dollars. \u201cThe most I might\u2019ve seen was maybe $200K,\u201d Rashia <\/b>said. \u201cIf I had three million dollars, you think my mother would still be living in run down, foreclosed apartments? I would\u2019ve bought her a house. I would\u2019ve bought her a car. She wouldn\u2019t be riding around in a car with no A\/C.\u201d<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>said one reason the circumstances of her case were exaggerated was to make her look like a key figure in Tampa\u2019s tax fraud scenario is because she can prove IRS<\/b> employees, their families and their friends are the real tax fraud criminals. \u201cIt ain\u2019t gon\u2019 ever stop. IRS<\/b> employees keep leaking new ways to do it every year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>then explained the picture of her holding the stacks of money, and the \u201c1st<\/sup> Lady<\/b>\u201d title associated with her. I never said I was the 1st<\/sup> Lady Of Tax Fraud<\/b>,\u201d <\/b>she <\/b>said. \u201cI had an entertainment company called 1st<\/sup> Lady Entertainment<\/b>. That\u2019s where 1st<\/sup> Lady <\/b>comes from.\u201d Rashia<\/b> continued, \u201cThat picture of me with the blonde wig, holding the money was for a party my company was promoting. It didn\u2019t have nothing to do with tax fraud. It was all dollar bills.\u201d The blue straps, visible in a color copy of the photo, indicate Rashia <\/b>was holding about thirteen hundred one dollar bills, nothing representative of the millions she\u2019s been convicted of stealing.<\/p>\n As for the narrative that she bragged about tax fraud and immunity from prosecution for it, in posts on her Facebook page. \u201cWho would do that? My Facebook page was hacked into on May 22, 2012, four months before I was indicted. If they would\u2019ve showed the comments and not just the statuses, they would\u2019ve seen I didn\u2019t put that stuff on my page,\u201d Rashia <\/b>said. It is hardly a far-fetched notion that a Facebook user\u2019s account would be hacked.<\/p>\n The Internet has dozens of tutorials on \u201cHow To Hack Facebook Pages,\u201d which are routinely hacked. Pamela Wilson<\/b>, Rashia\u2019s <\/b>mother, corroborated her daughter\u2019s story, asserting \u201cI was at the house when somebody hacked into her Facebook; I was there. She was crying when that stuff popped up on the computer.\u201d<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>talked about the expensive birthday party and the luxury items that were mentioned in the news, including the car, saying while she could have purchased those things with revenue from 1st<\/sup> Lady Entertainment<\/b>, <\/b>which promoted concerts with major acts like: OJ Juiceman<\/b>, Trina<\/b>, and Young Dro<\/b> in \u201909, Plies<\/b>, Yo Gotti<\/b>, Mystikal<\/b> and Ace Hood<\/b> in \u201911 and Future <\/b>in \u201912 (the Plies <\/b>show alone by her count netting her over $100K), most of those things were gifts. About the party she said, \u201ceverybody bought stuff for that party,\u201d About her jewelry, \u201cThe only jewelry I paid for was my necklace.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was in the entertainment business. People were always paying for this and that. Men bought me stuff.\u201d According to Rashia<\/b>, <\/b>the man who purchased the $90K Audi is a Bradenton native, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles<\/b>, at the time. \u201cHe bought the car on May 3, 2012. I wasn\u2019t even in town when he bought it for me and I can prove I was out of town.<\/p>\n In a similar vein, Rashia <\/b>said there is no proof the evidence used to convict her was in fact tied to her and not her co-defendant, who the Feds were after in the first place.<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>says <\/b>she was convicted not because she is guilty as charged, but because she trusted her defense attorney who she says didn\u2019t fight for her in court. She trusted him so much; he was paid a large sum of money for her defense, up front.<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>said, \u201cI feel like he sold me out to the government. He was paid $45K up front to defend me and he didn\u2019t do nothing to defend me. He told me I was guilty and he wasn\u2019t going to trial.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Rashia<\/b>, $5,000 of that money was for the attorney to hire a computer expert to verify her Facebook account was hacked. That did not happen. Rashia\u2019s <\/b>mom <\/b>said, <\/b>the attorney, \u201cUsed the bipolar thing, when he got paid to use a computer expert.\u201d<\/p>\n Rashia <\/b>expected the attorney to file for an appeal within 14 days of her sentencing. Instead, he withdrew from her case. \u201cThis is f*cked up,\u201d Rashia <\/b>said. \u201cPeople need to know these people lie. These people lie. People need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n Attempts to interview the attorney were refused by his office that relayed he had no comment about Rashia Wilson<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY LIFE Sentinel Freelance Writer U. S. District Judge James Moody sentenced 27-year-old Rashia Wilson to 21 years in federal prison on July 16, 2013. A quick Google search shows there has been no shortage of news coverage about Rashia\u2019s tax fraud case, since she was arrested in September 2012. Despite all of the media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}